Azar: WHO Let Coronavirus Pandemic 'Spin Out of Control'

The US Health and Human Services secretary has demanded "change" at the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing it of failing to obtain the information the world needed as the coronavirus outbreak emerged.

Alex Azar said the United States supports an independent review of “every aspect of WHO’s response to the pandemic,” keeping up a US onslaught against the UN health agency over its alleged failure to press China to be more transparent about the origins of the outbreak.

Without mentioning China by name, Azar said: “In an apparent attempt to conceal this outbreak, at least one member state made a mockery of their transparency obligations, with tremendous costs for the entire world.”

Azar, speaking by video conference to the WHO’s annual assembly on Monday, also joined recent statements from the US State Department blasting the UN health agency for not allowing Taiwan, whose government is a rival of China’s, to attend the event as an observer state.

“The health of 23 million Taiwanese people should never be sacrificed to send a political message,” Azar said.

He said the United States had allocated 9 billion US dollars to benefit the global coronavirus response.

Azar spoke just hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the assembly by video conference, saying China would spend 2 billion US dollars to help respond to the COVID-19 crisis and economic fallout from it.

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